Letters to editor: June 16

I'm writing to express my concern regarding the use of the public Glendover Elementary School parking lot for the private Signature Club of Landsdowne. The club runs a shuttle service from the parking lot to the club, located over a mile away.

This is against school board policy. School property is not supposed to be used for commercial activities.

This policy protects taxpayers from liability and the misuse of public property. It protects a neighborhood from what's happened here: a school parking lot in a solely residential area has become weekend, evening and late-night parking for a restaurant/bar/private club.

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I contacted city council and school board officials who then asked The Signature Club to stop using the lot. Rather than thanking the Fayette County taxpayers, the club continues to use the lot.

Our local schools leave lots open for neighborhood convenience. Non-profits are able to use the lots. Local employees or customers may use the lots rather than park on the street, a benefit to neighbors.

But in this case, a for-profit restaurant and private club has established a shuttle service to their business over one mile away. The local neighborhood derives no benefit from this situation.

If you feel this does not apply to you, please consider that there are many businesses who could use free parking. With the addition of a shuttle or valet service you too could end up with an after-hours parking lot in your neighborhood.

Clarissa Spawn

Lexington

Preserve 'swipe' fees

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 is an excellent piece of much-needed legislation; however, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois attached an amendment to the bill that is likely to prove a disaster for consumers, banks, credit unions and merchants. It is meant to benefit consumers and merchants at the expense of the banks and credit unions, who oppose it, but consumers should oppose it also.

Banks and credit unions typically collect from 30 to 44 cents for every debit and credit card swipe. Make no mistake, this results in big revenues for banks, who pass some onto customers in the way of free checking, ATM usage and the availability of convenient neighborhood banks. Durbin reduces this to 7 to 12 cents per transaction, a sum that is meant to cover fraud, operational costs and overhead. Banks will lose money.

Another provision allows merchants to reduce prices of items purchased with cash or a debit card. Some states prohibit this practice, but in others the practice is taking hold. It's doubtful merchants will hire more sales clerks to handle the tedious cash transactions.

With all the cash changing hands, robbers will be out in force.

Financial news reports show banks struggling to make profits. On the one hand the Federal Reserve is asking them to save money to minimize the chance of failure, while Congress is asking them to lend. Reduced swipe fees will gravely harm the big banks and credit unions and conceivably destroy the regional banks. Goodbye free services, hello more fees.

The courts may find the amendment unconstitutional because it interferes with free enterprise. Let us hope so.

Tom Schrodt

Lexington

Out-of-state bids

An optometry-supported ophthalmologist in Indiana gives thousands of dollars to the Steve Beshear inauguration committee in 2008 and Beshear pushes a bill allowing optometrists to perform eye surgery. For $61,000, Beshear's office introduces Cincinnati and New York-based money managers to the directors of the Kentucky Retirement System.

If Beshear wants to sell his policy decisions to the highest bidder, couldn't he at least do so with Kentucky-based companies?

David Garrett

Lexington

Feral cats have rights

In response to the "Feral cats harmful" letter:

They are our responsibility because as human beings we did what we always do — we took something and then dumped it.

If there are feral cats in your neighborhood the best thing to do is feed them, which will negate them killing the birds, and get them fixed, which will stop them from reproducing.

It does not really matter what diseases they carry because if you do not come in contact with them you will not catch anything, and a feral cat will do anything necessary to stay away from you.

As usual we human beings will not accept our blame in this problem — feral cats have as much right to live as anything else and the call to kill them is unjust and cruel.

Lynn Fish Blacketer

Nicholasville

Why do cats get a pass?

A recent letter citing feral cats as destructive to the population of songbirds in the United States prompts me to wonder: Why is there a leash law for dogs and not cats?

I've enjoyed cats and dogs as pets. Dogs are not allowed to roam, while most cats go where they please at all hours.

Not only do they prey on other animals, but they find it handy to use my flower beds as a litter box. The strong smell of cat urine is not appetizing anytime, especially first thing in the morning.

Linda Birk

Lexington

Turn of phrase

Sign, sign everywhere a sign, lurking out the window, blowing my mind. We know Confucious didn't write this, but this is what he would say, "He who need sign to guide car around curve need to leave car in garage."

Duke Martin

Lexington

False witness

In response to recent letters: The "Earth is flat" theory is not now, nor has ever been, an idea found within Jewish or Christian writing. In fact, the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament describe this Earth as a circle suspended on nothing, placed within an expanding universe. Science has since confirmed the accuracy of that description.

So, rhetorically, why continue to assign a flat-earth aspect to Judeo-Christian views despite what can be read in Isaiah, Job and the Psalms?

The grave realities of Mosaic Law are sober indicators that 4,000 years ago, beginning with Abraham, God developed his world narrative amid the savagery of self-determined cultures, some of which fed their young to fire.

So with modern man having 50,000 years to develop a history of which Moloch is a part; and today with man unable to interact effectively with mankind, nor even with Mother Earth due to the myopic world political and social order, evolution brings us to this frustrated end from such a radiant beginning.

So, referring to one letter writer's assertion that Christian authority was the basis for the Dark Ages, it must be said that Christianity contains a most powerful idea to shed light into the heart of man: God is the guarantor of liberty, not the politics of throne or state.

Therefore, if there were Dark Ages and religion and politics are linked to them, the cause of that darkness was something other than Judeo-Christianity. Pray for peace for Jerusalem.

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I give University of Kentucky men’s basketball Coach John Calipari a lot of credit. Each year, he starts with a new batch of freshmen who haven’t experienced life enough to go past a mirror without looking in it. However, I think it is time for rules to be enacted that will protect the “one-and-dones” from themselves. Most of these teenagers are not ready for the NBA. And they need more than one year of college ball to mature. Instead of relying on them to make a smart decision like P.J. Washington did, we adults should have rules that assist them in going down the right path.

Certainly, you can provide names such as Lebron James who could make the transition at an early age without any problem. But, I will bet even he would agree that most of these teens aren’t ready for the NBA. Just don’t ask them. They still believe that their talent and athleticism will take them anywhere like it did in high school. But a good, productive life typically is found through sharing and teamwork, whether you are talking about basketball or marriage or jobs or whatever. Let’s make “one and done” simply “done.”